Keen Eye For Action: Marksman Writes Of Military Life

July 31, 1994|By WILL MOLINEUX Book Reviewer

Hiram Berdan, a wealthy entrepreneur reputed to be the best marksman in the North, organized a regiment of sharpshooters from Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire to serve with the Army of the Potomac.

One of the men who signed up with Berdan was William B. Greene, a teen-ager from Raymond, N.H., who had little experience shooting a rifle but had a steady hand and good eyesight.

Ninety-three letters - a few mere notes - that he wrote home and excerpts from his diaries are presented here with little commentary and without footnotes.

Greene was a keen observer of military life and a good reporter of military action. His letters were penned from Virginia places and battlefields such as Bristoe Station, Orange County, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and Petersburg.

From Haymarket Square, Greene wrote his mother on June 3, 1862, of entering a house and finding a large trunk. "We broke it open and to our great surprise we found the skeleton of a man. ... I should think by the looks, we made up our mind that it came from Bull Run battle field or some other, so we took some of the pieces to our camp. ..." (Disney America: take note.)

Green's letters don't require commentary by an editor. They stand very well alone. Therefore, William H. Hastings, the compiler of this collection of correspondence, has taken the unusual and pleasing approach of annotating them with photographs and contemporary drawings and maps.

Hence, this is a handsome, as well as informative and insightful accounting of one private's experiences in an elite unit.